Thanks to NetGalley and Mira Books for an advanced copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng honestly highly exceeded my expectations. I feel like some reviews mentioned that this book had "too much going on," but I don't think that's the case at all. I think that this author blended several themes and genres into one cohesive story, making it impactful and extremely unique.

On one hand, this has a thriller/mystery vibe happening, after Cora's sister Delilah is murdered. When Delilah starts reaching out to Cora from the grave, Cora goes on this quest to try to solve her murder. With ghost Delilah haunting Cora, there's also the horror/supernatural aspect. And while the author gave us physical horror in the form of ghosts, we also experience the horror of the racism against Asian Americans during COVID, and how they were viciously targeted and blamed for the pandemic. There is also a lot of Asian culture explored, which I absolutely loved. And while Cora is also coping with the grief from her sister's murder, she also lives in fear of getting sick with COVID, and fear that she will one day become another Asian American woman murdered out of hatred. She also copes with the difficulty of growing up in America, and not being as connected to her Asian heritage as the rest of her family. All of these things came together beautifully to create this terrifying and simultaneously heartbreaking story. Everything was so well-done, and even the scenes with the hauntings were terrifying.

While COVID is still a recent traumatic experience for many people, I can't help but see similar fear and hatred towards marginalized groups today, 5 years later in 2025 (for different reasons, but the horror of it is still similar). It's an important topic to discuss, and I feel like this should be something everyone reads, whether they like horror or not.

I highly recommend this!

3.5 stars!

Holy wow, what a punch in the face. This book is brutal and nonstop from the very first chapter. I found myself drawn into Cora's story so easily and was fully on board for the entire horrifying ride. Go into this expecting something ugly and glaring and incredibly heavy all wrapped up in a reading experience that will leave your head spinning for days to come. This is a book that weighs you down in the bestworst way.

I've never read something that would be categorized as grief horror, but I'm glad my first one was in KLB's skillful hands. Ditto for anything set during the modern pandemic era. I was worried how a book rooted in such nearby history would land, but KLB handles it perfectly. It was especially fascinating to see this familiar setting in time through the eyes of someone so isolated and obsessive about exposures.

Although "enjoyable" isn't the word for it, it was great getting to experience how the height of COVID paranoia amplified racism against people with a perceived involvement. Very eye-opening and disarming to experience as directly as Cora and crew do on the page. The boldness of strangers interacting in a public space never failed to stagger me, which I absolutely recognize comes from a place of privilege. The way KLB mirrors Cora's experiences with the general population with the systemic racism associated with the crimes unfolding on page is nothing short of masterful.

The issues I have with this book I fully recognize are mine rather than any fault of the author or the book itself. I don't want to spoil anything, but I'm a reader who tends to want to know why certain things happen, who tends to want solid closure at the end of a read. I don't feel like I got that here and I'll leave it at that. You'll have to read to see what I mean!

But regardless of how I felt at the end, this was a fantastic experience and I absolutely plan to recommend it widely. I've been meaning to check out KLB's fantasy books and now that I've seen her writing in action those will def have to move up the TBR.

Special thanks to MIRA for providing access to an ARC in exchange for review.

I received this eARC as a free gift for attending an author talk through my bookclub. The way the author spoke about her process and the motivation for the story made me really intrigued. I haven’t finished it yet and I’m not sure I’ll be able to. The novel is really well written, but the horror aspect just isn’t for me. I’ve rated based on the writing and the story even though I didn’t finish.

Nope, I got about 6% done and couldn't do it anymore. I couldn't handle the violence and descriptions, which are really vivid and written in an interesting way, so if you're into that I'm sure it's a good book.

“It’s strange how hate and love can so quietly exist at the same time. They are moon phases, one silently growing until one day all that’s left is darkness.”

✨ARC Review*: “Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng” by Kylie Lee Baker ✨

Wow, this one is definitely one of my top reads of the year! Although I got this as an ARC, it was definitely one I needed to sit with before putting this review together.

If you have not heard of this one, it’s a story that takes place during the pandemic in New York and is told from the perspective of Cora Zeng, a crime scene cleaner. As a story it covers some pretty heavy topics in addition to what you might expect for other books in the horror genre.

The story is very gripping and I was thinking about it even when I had to step away from it. From scenes that made me gasp out loud to a mystery that I was so desperate to unravel, this exceeded all of my expectations.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Overall Rating| ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

*This book was published on 4/29/25.

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng was a book unlike anything I had ever read before. To be honest, I was a bit hesitant to pick up a book that sounded so heavily focused around Covid. Although Covid did play a major role in the plot, it wasn't the primary focus, which I was glad for.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner. It's April 2020 in NYC. Cora's sister was recently shoved off a subway platform by a man who called her a "Bat Eater" and gruesomely hit by a train right in front of her. Cora is trying to cope with the loss of her sister, her whole world, and turns to crime scene cleaning. The murders of Asian women is on the rise during this time and it seems to be a serial killer behind it. His calling card? Leaving live bats at the crime scene. It's up to Cora, Yeifi, and Harvey to figure out who the killer is and stop him. All the while trying to keep Hungry Ghosts at bay (yes, ghosts are real and there is one (or more) following Cora around).

This novel took me by surprise. I didn't think that I would enjoy it as much as I did. There was mystery, paranormal, Chinese folklore, and gore throughout. The book was marketed as being of the horror genre, however I wouldn't call it horror. It wasn't scary, per say, maybe a bit spooky at times, but not horrifying. Definitely a mystery aspect as well as thrilling. This book makes me want to dive into Kylie Lee Baker's backlist. I highly recommend this one to anyone wanting to branch out of the ordinary because this novel is anything but! 5 stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC!

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng turned out to be bigger than the premise ever issued! Cora Zeng's story takes place during COVID in Chinatown, New York, after a dramatic travesty transpires in front of her eyes. From there, we follow her life as an OCD-ish, germaphobe, crime scene cleaner (I know, right), trying to navigate through a Pandemic, racism, and a haunting.

BEAONFCZ was a well-crafted book. I had no idea where the story was going until we reached the end. Although BEAONFCZ is classified as horror, it brings out the fear in more ways than one. For a story that presented multiple topics, it all meshed well together.

I love Asian horror, but I will say that this book was not meant for me. I highly appreciated Baker's note at the end of the story, which made me give her cool points. I stayed with my original rating. 3.5 stars

Bat Eater and Other Names for Cora Zeng kept me on the edge of my seat. I’m a huge fan of horror movies, but I haven’t read a lot of horror books. I enjoyed seeing Kylie Lee Baker step into a new genre and make it her own.

This book is set during the pandemic in New York City. The story starts with our main character, Cora, and her sister at the train station. Instead of it being a normal day, a white man pushes Cora’s sister, Delilah, onto the train tracks, and she is killed. The man isn’t caught. The rest of the book follows Cora as she grieves and attempts to move on. She gets a new job as a crime scene cleaner and soon realizes there is a serial killer in New York City targeting young Asian American women. If all of that wasn’t enough for one person to deal with, Delilah’s ghost starts appearing everywhere. And she isn’t a harmless ghost. She’s hungry. 

This book deals with grief and racism, particularly the racism Asian Americans faced during COVID. This was the first book I’ve read set during the pandemic, and Baker did a great job capturing the essence of that time and the vast spectrum of how people dealt with the pandemic. I found the ghost aspect of this book really interesting. I wasn’t familiar with the mythology about hungry ghosts. Combining hungry ghosts with a serial killer gave this book a spooky edge I loved.

an eerie and sharp story that explores familial grief, racism, and trauma.

this novel follows cora zeng as she deals with the murder of her sister while living through the covid-19 pandemic, and how she and her coworkers start to notice a scary pattern in the crime scenes they clean up. the writing is graphic, immersive, and profound. the author explored the real-life ramifications of racism, xenophobia, and hatred. this is definitely a horror novel; some of the scenes were very scary #tome (i don't read horror much). i also enjoyed the threads of chinese culture and folklore that were interwoven into cora's investigations.

cora is such an interesting character to me; she's very multifaceted, even if you think that her only identity is being wrapped up in her sister. i really liked the relationships developed in the novel; harvey, yifei, and cora were a really interesting dynamic with all of them being chinese and dealing with xenophobia/racism, and auntie zeng and cora, with auntie zeng's spiritual and cultural knowledge versus cora not believing in it at first.

gory, haunting, and intriguing; this book really draws you in and places you in the horror of cora's world as she fights both the hungry ghots emerging, a closed-down world in the wake of an illness spreading around the world, and the racism and xenophobia directed towards not only her, but many asian people. i would recommend this book to people who like literary or horror novels

thanks to netgalley and harlequin trade publishing for the arc!

I wanted to love this book. It had the eerie vibes I love, but the pacing was far too slow, the plot too predictable, and the emphasis on racism while important, was too much the focus of this book and honestly it killed the story for me. The fmc seems to be a very introverted person, which is fine but I feel like the side characters were more interesting and that's just not what readers want.

This is a sharp and beautifully written horror story about a haunted and fractured mind amidst the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic. The opening scene alone cleaves you in two and horrifies you, and you’re immediately invested in Cora’s story. I don’t think any other book has, or could, address racism, grief, anxiety, trauma, and hauntings so perfectly. This is easily one of the best books of the year.

"It’s strange how hate and love can so quietly exist at the same time. They are moon phases, one quietly growing until one day all that’s there is darkness."

I think this is the first pandemic horror book I've read / heard of, and it did not disappoint. Usually I read thriller books, but the haunting of an attached spirit (and it actually being a spirit) was so interesting.

This book definitely covered heavy topics of death and racism that any and all Asians experienced, whether they were Chinese or not. during the pandemic. This is a gory, scary, all around insane book that I was sucked into from about 75 pages in.

It would be such a good late night spooky read. I recommend. Just not during the month of August...

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for granting me an e-arc!!

This book is so hauntingly beautiful, definitely something that will stay with you for a long time!!

Cora is a Chinese-American living in New York City in 2020 at the start of the pandemic. Life is scary enough as it is with the disease and unprecedented restrictions and isolation, but Cora also has to face an overwhelming anti-Asian sentiment that is present in the city. She deals with people making racist remarks as she passes by, and even sometimes physical harassment. However, this is taken to an extreme when Cora and her sister, Delilah, are at a subway station and a masked white man comes and pushes Delilah out onto the tracks in front of the train. Cora witnesses the terrible, tragic death of her sister, and the man behind the attack isn’t caught.

Since Cora’s normal job shut down due to the pandemic, she eventually gets a new job as a crime scene cleaner. While she and her coworkers turned friends are going to clean these places, they notice a frightening pattern- they’re seeing a lot of Asian women brutally killed, some left with a bat as a calling card. While they suspect they have a serial killer on their hands, Cora is also dealing with something perhaps equally as scary: she starts seeing Delilah where she goes, except it’s not her human form, but a terrifying ghost. Cora trusts that even as a ghost Delilah won’t hurt her, but she’s not sure why Delilah is coming back or what exactly she wants. Cora has been told about how people in their culture that are killed in a violent way may come back as hungry ghosts, only appeased once you’ve filled their nearly insatiable appetite. However, Cora is sure that this ghost is leading her to something- but what? As Cora and her coworkers work to try to put Delilah’s spirit to rest, they uncover more information about these recent killings- potentially putting them in danger.

This book was heartbreaking but so wonderfully written. It is graphic and gory, so readers should beware of that. However, I think it’s important and impactful that the author used such descriptions, because these terrible acts of prejudice really were inflicted on Asian women during the pandemic. This novel really brought back the fear of the pandemic, but tenfold as Cora dealt with a lot of scary things that many of us did not have to. I would recommend this read, even if it doesn’t sound like your typical book! It really is worth the read.

This may be one of my favorite reads of the year! Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this, I loved it so much even while only 20% in, that I ordered a hard copy to cherish on my shelf. This was so well written and profound. I loved all the Chinese folklore and COVID pandemic fear, but it also touches on the real life horrors of xenophobia and hate crimes. I also couldn't help but think this would make an EXCELLENT anime!! Every character was so well written, I loved following their crime scene clean ups, as well as them trying to unravel the mystery of Delilah's murder (the FMC's sister) as well as a rash of other Asian deaths. And the answer is so much worse than imagined. Loved learning about hu fry ghosts and jiangshi. I just can't say enough. And even her afterword was so poignant and powerful.

Give this book ALL the stars! Excellent in every way and one of my all time favorites. The character development is excellent and I loved the interwoven threads of Chinese folklore and a serial killer investigation. Kylie Lee Baker uses her voice to speak eloquently about racism and it’s impacts on society as a whole. The setting of New York during the COVID pandemic was powerful to address Asian hate and how this type of othering has deeply harmed all of us. There were some scenes that gave me literal shivers too which I always enjoy. Just an excellent, thought provoking book from beginning to end.

Thank you to Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book in exchange for my honest review.

A big thank you to Harlequin trade publishing and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for an honest review 💚

Wow. was this book something I did not expect.
I went in blind, only knowing that I'd been seing a lot of positive reviews on this one and since horror is usually a 50-50 genre on the opinion scale, I was veeery intrigued.

From page 1 until the end, I was completely transfixed. Whatever the storyline was, or what was happening I was completely glued to the story. The kind of book where you open a page, you blink and you've read 10% of it.
I haven't met many of those in 2025.

I'm giving this a strong 4 ⭐, and keeping the review vague so you simply pick it up and see for yourself 💚 💚

BAT EATER AND OTHER NAMES FOR CORA ZENG is a layered, haunting exploration of grief and collective trauma. It’s the beginning of the pandemic in New York City, and Cora’s sister Delilah is killed, pushed in front of an oncoming subway. As he flees, the murderer yells, “Bat eater!” But Delilah is not the only Chinese woman murdered. As a crime scene cleaner, Cora knows this in graphic detail.

What follows is an intricately woven story built equally on folklore and the events of 2020. Kylie Lee Baker skillfully conveys the eerie stillness of 2020 and the writing is captivating. It’s a horror story so deeply rooted in reality that I could feel it in my chest as I read it, and I still feel it now. Yes, there are hungry ghosts in this book - but sometimes, the monsters among us are the living, breathing kind. Brilliant and moving. I cannot recommend enough.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy. All opinions are entirely my own.

Thank you so much to the Author and NetGalley for allowing me to read this.

I would love to start off by saying that this does take place during Covid 2020. I would highly suggest to please come into this book with caution if you are still haunted by that horrible time.

This book was really intriguing and a little in my head since well it’s something we all went through. But this author takes a twist with a cleaner (for murder scenes) and her sister. This book also takes bits and pieces of Chinese folklore into the theme of the book which I would like to say horror? But for me it was more thriller. Not sure I can explain this well.

Over all this book is a 4 star for me 🫶🏼

I received this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ARC provided by Harlequin Trade Publishing.

Cora Zeng is a crime scene cleaner, washing away the remains of brutal murders and suicides in Chinatown. But none of that seems so terrible when she is already witnessed the most horrific thing possible: her sister, Delilah, being pushed in front of a train.

Before fleeing the scene, the murderer shouted two words: bat eater. So the bloody messes do not really bother Cora—she is more bothered by the germs on the subway railing, the bare hands of a stranger, the hidden viruses in every corner, and the bite marks on her coffee table. Of course, ever since Delilah was killed in front of her, Cora can not be sure what is real and what is in her head.

She pushes away all feelings and ignores the advice of her aunt to prepare for the Hungry Ghost Festival, when the gates of hell open. But she can not ignore the dread in her stomach as she keeps finding bat carcasses at crime scenes, or the scary fact that all her recent cleanups have been the bodies of East Asian women. As Cora will soon learn, you can not just ignore hungry ghosts.

I am still unsure if I fully loved this one or not. Some scenes and concepts are particularly good, and the cast of characters is fantastic. But I really appreciated the insight into Asian culture and the way the book addressed real world issues. The overall message of this one was so meaningful too. It explores systemic racism, the rise of anti-Asian hate during the COVID pandemic, critiques the institutional failure of the legal system which was so important. in certain areas, The book does fall short at times. There are moments where the paranormal elements could have used more explanation. The book is set in New York City, yet it never really feels like it. The subway stations are unnamed, the parks are never identified so there really is no sense of place/ setting. I also did not find this book scary at all but it definitely had moments where it was gross. Overall, it was an interesting book with some cool elements and I am really happy that it was based on true events, but it definitely had potential to be much better.

Brilliantly brings the horror of the pandemic to life as seen through Cora who is germaphobe. Not only does Cora have to fear germs but also a serial killer who hates Chinese and hungry ghosts who have started haunting her after the death of her sister. There were so many things to be frightened of during the pandemic and it’s all in this book. Fantastic. I also listened to parts and the audiobook was very good.
Thanks Netgalley for the ARC!